site.btaBulgargaz Confirms Proposal for 5.7% Hike for Natural Gas in August

State-owned natural-gas supplier Bulgargaz confirmed its July 11 proposal to set the price of natural gas in Bulgaria in August at BGN 61.44/MWh, which is 5.7% higher than in July, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) said on Tuesday. This is the price at which Bulgargaz will sell natural gas to end-suppliers and to entities licensed to produce and transmit heat energy.

Explaining the proposed hike during an open-door meeting with EWRC, Bulgargaz Executive Director Veselin Sinabov pointed to the scheduled maintenance of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will make it necessary to draw gas from the Chiren storage facility in Northwestern Bulgaria to make up for the reduction of gas quantities from Azerbaijan.

EWRC Chair Ivan Ivanov said: "If it was not for the scheduled maintenance of TAP, the price of natural gas [in Bulgaria] in August would remain unchanged from July, because the planned volume of supply from Azerbaijan would be the same and the pricing factors are not influenced by the [European] TTF indicators." Ivanov said TAP maintenance is the only reason to hike the gas price in August.

According to Ivanov, the fact that gas storage facilities in Bulgaria (Chiren) and Europe are filled to a high degree (81% and 83%, respectively) plays a stabilizing role for the price of natural gas in the coming months.

In keeping with relevant regulations, on August 1 Bulgargaz will provide EWRC with the latest data about the gas pricing factors. Later in the day the regulator will set the price of natural gas for August.